The present invention relates to a narrow belt-shaped member winding apparatus for winding a narrow belt-shaped member in a zigzag manner around a drum by supplying to the rotating drum the belt-shaped member being swung in axial directions of the drum.
Hitherto, an apparatus for winding a rubber-coated cord sheet in a zigzag manner around a drum has been known, for example, as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,721,599. The disclosed apparatus includes a guide tube extending along a normal to the outer surface of a drum and having a forward end adjacent the outer surface of the drum, and-reciprocative motion means for reciprocatively moving the guide tube in the axial directions of the drum. A rubber coated cord sheet is supplied through the guide tube which is swung or reciprocatively moved to wind the sheet in a zigzag manner around the drum.
Moreover, a winding apparatus for spirally winding a cord around a semimanufactured tire has been proposed by the applicant of the present case (refer to JP-A 4-4133, published Jan. 8, 1992) other than the apparatus disclosed in the above U.S. Pat. No. The proposed apparatus comprises a support base, and moving means for moving the support base substantially along an axis of the semimanufactured tire to maintain a distance from it at a constant value. The apparatus further comprises an attaching roller supported on the support base rotatably about an axis substantially in parallel with the axis of the semimanufactured tire for urging and attaching a supplied cord to the semimanufactured tire after being wound partially around the attaching roller. A cord is supplied to the attaching roller moved by the moving means and is urged against the rotating semimanufactured tire by the attaching roller to be spirally wound around the semimanufactured tire.
When a narrow belt-shaped member, for example, a layer made of rubber coated parallel cords is wound in zigzag around a drum by the use of the first mentioned known apparatus, the layer is likely to be deformed and incorrectly wound around the drum. This is because the layer is subjected to a large external force in its width direction from the guide tube owing to the great difference in direction between the supply direction and winding direction of the layer.
On the other hand, when a narrow belt-shaped member, for example, a layer is wound in a zigzag manner around a drum by the use of the second mentioned proposed apparatus, the winding direction of the layer is greatly inclined relative to the circumferential direction of the drum in comparison with that in spirally winding. As a result, the winding direction of the layer is greatly different from the supply direction of the layer (the circumferential direction of the drum in this case), causing a large external force acting upon the layer from the attaching roller in its axial direction. Consequently, the layer is deformed to be incorrectly wound around the drum as in the first mentioned known apparatus and the layer is dislodged from the attaching roller, making it impossible to wind the layer around the drum as the case may be.